The DXP shakeup: How Optimizely became the top DXP

For 12 straight years, Adobe has dominated the digital experience platform (DXP) space on the Gartner Magic Quadrant and has been a go-to for enterprise organizations seeking digital transformation at scale.  

But as the digital experience space matured, so did the expectations of its users. And in that shifting landscape, a new contender steadily closed the gap. 

In this year’s Gartner Magic Quadrant for DXPs, Optimizely didn’t just claim a “Leader” title in the report—Optimizely actually leapfrogged Adobe as the top DXP. 

But how? 

Optimizely’s rise wasn’t fueled by flashy features or aggressive marketing. It was driven by something much simpler: clarity and connection. 

Transparent pricing. A user-friendly interface. Built-in functionality for content management, personalization, customer data, experimentation, and AI—all within one composable platform.

As Shafqat Islam, Optimizely President, shared: 

“We believe that this acknowledgment from Gartner cements that we're on the right track to truly making the lives of marketers better through Optimizely One. The industry needed a shakeup, and I'm excited about the compelling choice that’s now available to the largest enterprise customers looking for a new DXP.” 

At its core, Optimizely One empowers organizations to start small and scale confidently.  

Thanks to its composable architecture, teams can start with just one or two tools—like the Content Marketing Platform (CMP) or Web Experimentation—without a massive upfront investment or heavy development lift. That flexibility matters. Especially for teams navigating legacy systems, siloed data, and mounting pressure to deliver measurable results fast. 

The Optimizely One vision 

Over the past two decades, DXPs evolved to serve a wide range of roles across the enterprise. But the promise of digital transformation often got lost in fragmented systems and disconnected teams. Or simply speaking... 

Organizations haven’t suffered from a lack of tools. They’ve suffered from a lack of cohesion between these tools. 

What sets Optimizely apart is its refusal to accept that fragmentation as inevitable. 

The Optimizely One vision centers around the culmination of many top-tier tools blended together to fulfill ALL the digital job functions needed by organizations. 

Its DXP is a full-service operating system and breaks down data siloes across the entire marketing lifecycle. This helps align IT, marketing, customer service, sales, and strategy to improve speed to market and overall campaign effectiveness.  

It greatly reduces the friction of organizations to work across groups to do what they do best by nurturing collaboration instead of the infighting that has plagued teams for decades.  

Optimizely One addresses that head-on by fostering connected experiences—from the inside out. 

Using Optimizely to create connected experiences 

Disconnected tech means disconnected teams. And disconnected teams can’t create seamless customer journeys. 

Too often, enterprises cobble together a Frankenstein stack: analytics here, personalization there, asset management somewhere else. These stitched-together systems rarely play well together—and the customer feels it. 

Optimizely eliminates that friction with built-in tools that work together from day one. Content creation, CMS, analytics, experimentation, segmentation—it’s all part of one platform. That means faster updates, smarter insights, and fewer dependencies on external platforms or dev support.  

But perhaps no Optimizely product addresses connected experiences better than Netspring, bridging Data Warehouse Analytics with activities in your website channel. This allows for real-time insights to improve your digital experiences which are otherwise unachievable.  

So what now? 

The recognition from Gartner isn’t just a feather in Optimizely’s cap—it’s a signal to the market that priorities are shifting.  

Enterprises are tired of complexity disguised as capability. They want platforms that reduce friction, unlock speed, and enable agility without compromise. 

At Horizontal Digital, we’ve spent the past 20+ years helping brands architect digital experiences that connect with customers—and with results. We’ve seen firsthand how the right DXP can transform not only your marketing operations but your entire business. 

And we believe Optimizely is that DXP for the future. 

Let’s talk about how to build connected experiences that convert—on a platform that’s finally catching up with where your ambitions already are.